Consider Phlebas

too,' Yalson said.

'When you get to where we are now, head over to the left for the other side prow; there are subsidiary lasers there. Horza and Lamm will-'

'Yeah, we heard,' Yalson said.

'Right. We'll be able to bring the shuttle closer, maybe right down to wherever we find anything soon. Let's go. Keep your eyes open.' He nodded at Aviger and Jandraligeli, and they went forward. Lamm and Horza looked at each other, then set off in the direction Kraiklyn had indicated. Lamm motioned to Horza to switch off his communicator transmit and open his visor.

'If we'd waited we could have put the shuttle down where we wanted to in the first place,' he said with his own visor open. Horza agreed.

'Stupid little bastard,' Lamm said.

'Who?' asked Horza.

'That kid. Jumping off the goddamned platform.'

'Hmm.'

'Know what I'm going to do?' Lamm looked at the Changer.

'What?'

'I'm going to cut that stupid little bastard's tongue out, that's what I'm going to do. A tattooed tongue should be worth something, shouldn't it? Little bastard owed me money anyway. What do you think? How much do you think it'd be worth?'

'No idea.'

'Little bastard…' Lamm muttered.

The two men tramped along the deck, angling away from the dead-ahead line they had taken previously. It was difficult to tell where exactly they were heading, but according to Kraiklyn it was towards one of the side prows, which stuck out like enormous outriggers attached to the Olmedreca and formed harbours for the liners which had shuttled to and from the Megaship in its heyday, on excursions, or working as tenders.

They passed where there had evidently been a recent fire-fight; laser burns, smashed glass and torn metal littered an accommodation section of the ship, and torn curtains and wall hangings flapped in the steady breeze of the great ship's progress. Two of the small wheeled vehicles lay smashed on their sides near by. They crunched over the debris and kept walking. The other two groups were heading forward, too, making reasonable progress according to their reports and chatter. Ahead of them there still lay the enormous bank of cloud they had seen earlier; it wasn't growing any thinner or lower, and they could only be a couple of kilometres from it now, though distances were hard to estimate.

'We're here,' Kraiklyn said eventually, his voice crackling in Horza's ear. Lamm turned his transmit channel on.

'What?' He looked, mystified, at Horza, who shrugged.

'What's keeping you two?' Kraiklyn said. 'We had further to walk. We're at the main bows. They stick further out than the bit you're on.'

'The hell you are, Kraiklyn,' Yalson broke in from the other team, which was supposed to be heading for the opposite set of side prows.

'What?' Kraiklyn said. Lamm and Horza stopped to listen to the exchange over their communicators. Yalson spoke again:

'We've just come to the edge of the ship. In fact I think we're a bit out from the main side… on some sort of wing or buttress… Anyway, there's no side prow around here. You've sent us in the wrong direction.'

'But you…' Kraiklyn began. His voice died away.

'Kraiklyn, dammit, you've sent us towards the bow and you're on a side prow!' Lamm yelled into his helmet mike. Horza had been coming to the same conclusion. That was why they were still walking and Kraiklyn's team had reached the bows. There was silence from the Clear Air Turbulence's captain for a few seconds, then he said:

'Shit, you must be right.' They could hear him sigh. 'I guess you and Horza had better keep going. I'll send somebody down in your direction once we've had a quick look round here. I think I can see some sort of gallery with a lot of transparent blisters where there might be some lasers. Yalson, you head back to where we split up and tell me when you get there. We'll see who comes up with something useful first.'

'Fucking marvellous,' Lamm said, stamping off into the mist. Horza followed, wishing the ill-fitting suit didn't rub so much.

The two men walked on. Lamm stopped to investigate some state rooms which had already been looted. Fine materials snagged on broken glass floated like the cloud around them. In one apartment they saw rich wooden furniture, a holosphere lying broken in a corner and a glass-sided water tank the size of a room, full of rotting, brilliantly coloured fish and fine clothes, floating together on the surface like exotic weeds.

Over their communicators Horza and Lamm heard the others in Kraiklyn's group find what they thought was a door leading to the gallery where — they hoped — they would find lasers behind the transparent bubbles they had seen earlier. Horza told Lamm they had best not waste their time, and so they left the state rooms and went back out onto the deck to continue heading forward.

'Hey, Horza,' Kraiklyn said, as the Changer and Lamm walked along the deck and into a long tunnel lit by dim sunlight coming through mist and opaque ceiling panels. 'This needle radar's not working properly.'

Horza answered as they walked. 'What's wrong?'

'It isn't going through cloud, that's what's wrong.'

'I never really got a chance to… What do you mean?' Horza stopped in the corridor. He felt something wrong in his guts. Lamm kept walking, away from him, down the corridor.

'It's giving me a reading off that big cloud in front, right the way along and about half a K up.' Kraiklyn laughed. 'It isn't the Edgewall, that's for sure, and I can see that's a cloud, and it's closer than the needle says it is.'

'Where are you now?' Dorolow broke in. 'Did you find any lasers? What about that door?'

'No, just a sort of sun lounge or something,' Kraiklyn said. 'Kraiklyn!' Horza shouted. 'Are you sure about that reading?'

'I'm sure. The needle says-'

'Sure isn't much fucking sun to lounge-' somebody broke in, though it sounded as if it was accidental and they didn't know their transmit was on. Horza felt sweat start out on his brow. Something was wrong.

'Lamm!' he shouted. Lamm, thirty metres away down the corridor, turned as he walked and looked back. 'Come back!' Horza shouted. Lamm stopped.

'Horza, there can't be anything-'

'Kraiklyn!' This time it was Mipp's voice, calling from the shuttle. 'There was somebody else here. I just saw another craft take off somewhere behind where we landed; they've gone now.'

'OK, thanks Mipp,' Kraiklyn said, his voice calm. 'Listen, Horza, from what I can see from here, the bows where you are have just gone into the cloud, so it is a cloud… Shit, we can all see it's a goddamn cloud. Don't-'

The ship shuddered under Horza's feet. He rocked. Lamm looked at him, puzzled. 'Did you feel that?' Horza shouted.

'Feel what?' Kraiklyn said.

'Kraiklyn?' It was Mipp again. 'I can see something…'

'Lamm, get back here!' Horza shouted, through the air and into his helmet mike together. Lamm looked around him. Horza thought he could feel a continuing tremor in the deck below.

'What did you feel?' Kraiklyn said. He was starting to get annoyed.

Yalson chipped in, 'I thought I felt something. Nothing much. But listen, these things aren't supposed to… they aren't supposed to-'

'Kraiklyn,' Mipp said more urgently, 'I think I can see-'

'Lamm!' Horza was backing off now, back down the long tunnel of corridor. Lamm stayed where he was, looking hesitant.

Horza could hear something, a curious growling noise; it reminded him of a jet engine or a fusion motor heard